1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing apparatuses, image output apparatuses and image processing systems, in particular to technology related to registration and search of image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image processing apparatus such as a digital multi-function peripheral (MFP) has the copy function of forming the image on the recording sheet corresponding to the image data that has been read out from the original document, the print function of forming the image on the recording sheet corresponding to the print data, the facsimile function of transmitting and receiving image data, and the transfer function of transferring image data. Further, in addition to these functions, there are also apparatuses that have the function of accumulating and storing a large volume of image data in a recording medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD), etc.
At the time of such storing of large volumes of data, in order to ease the search and management of images and to protect from unauthorized viewing of the data by other persons, measures are taken such as providing separate storage areas (storage boxes) for different users or different groups and storing the image data after classifying it in these storage boxes. For example, there are document management apparatuses in which for every image data that has been read out, the users who are permitted to output that data are specified and only those users are allowed to search for and read out the image from the storage boxes (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Laid Open No. 2001-249929.
In a system in which a plurality of image processing apparatuses have been connected to the network, since a number of storage boxes will be present distributed over these plural image processing apparatuses, when handing over image data via storage boxes to a person other than the person who stored it, it was not possible for the recipient to take out the desired image data unless the recipient knew in which storage box of which terminal has been the image data stored. Therefore, it was inconvenient because either the recipient had to obtain separately from the person storing the image data the information related to the storage location such as the device name or storage box name of the storage location or to search a number of storage boxes.
In addition, even when the recipient could come to know the storage location of the desired image data, there was the problem that, in order to take out that image data from the storage box, it was necessary to go up to the corresponding device, input the storage box name in its operating panel, and also to carry out complicated operations such as selecting the file name, etc.